You probably know this moment well: everyone has said what they wanted to say and an awkward silence fills the room. Well don't be afraid and save the day with a few of your best stories worth telling.

Advertisement

We all have stories, but Chris Gardner at ManMade suggests you pick a few of the really good ones out of your collection so you'll always have a fail-safe when the conversation runs dry. Think about exciting past experiences, funny things that happened to you or people you know, or anything else that would be somewhat entertaining. Once you have a few you think will work, practice telling them. You can even write them down if you want to. You don't need to over-rehearse, but you want to be able to pull these stories out at any time. Of course, you don't want to tell the same stories over and over to the same group of people, but you get the idea. People like to hear stories a lot more than they like awkward silences, so be the hero and bust out one of your best.